§ Motion made, and Question proposed, That this House do now adjourn.—[Ms Bridget Prentice.]
12.10 am§ Mr. Keith Vaz (Leicester, East)Mr. Deputy Speaker, may I thank you for allowing me to raise in the House the tragic case of Edgar Fernandes, a young British citizen who met his death in mysterious circumstances in Turkey. I also want to highlight the plight of families involved in tracing their loved ones.
Hon. Members may remember the extensive media coverage of the disappearance of Edgar Fernandes, who went missing in Turkey in April. They may also remember the outrage that followed the discovery of Edgar's body in a Turkish mortuary a full month after he had disappeared.
Edgar was a librarian at Hackney council who grew up in my constituency in Leicester, where his mother and father still live, although he was born in Kenya and lived for a short while in Goa. He was murdered in Turkey. The man suspected of carrying out his murder was then arrested in Malta after Edgar's passport had been used to enter Bulgaria and Greece. Edgar's tragedy is therefore a truly international story. In fact, had it not happened, it could easily have been dismissed as a work of fiction.
I was approached by his family to take up his case. His local Member of Parliament at the time of his death was my right hon. Friend the Member for Holborn and St. Pancras (Mr. Dobson), the Secretary of State for Health. My right hon. Friend has asked to be associated with everything that has been done on behalf of the family.
Edgar was a very popular and gentle person, supported by his strong and closely knit family—his two brothers and three sisters—as well as a huge network of friends. The grief at his death was widespread. Numerous people paid tributes at his funeral and, as a result of public demand, a book of condolence was opened at the library where he worked. I want to pay tribute tonight to the painstaking and relentless campaign that Edgar's family and friends have mounted in order to obtain justice. May I acknowledge the love and devotion of his brothers and sisters—Genny, Matthias, Mary, Fatima and Mario—and of Tony Fernandes, Krishna Maharaj, Sophia and Andy Mesfin, Jerome Carasco, Chris Broadhead and Evelyn Teichmann.
I want tonight to highlight the reasons why the family feel that they must get more support from the authorities, especially as more and more Britons now go abroad on holiday. Britons travel abroad in the expectation that they will be protected and that, if they are attacked or murdered, the authorities in those countries will take appropriate action. The Fernandes family have conducted a mammoth investigation to trace the suspect and to uncover what happened to Edgar. In fact, almost all the evidence in the case has been carefully uncovered by the family and has been passed to Turkish Interpol, the British embassy in Turkey and the Foreign Office.
Edgar left for a week's holiday to Turkey on 8 April 1998. When he failed to return, his family alerted his local police station in Camden. The police officer suspected that he had run away from the family, and tried to probe the family's history.
546 Frustrated with that attitude, the family appealed to the Foreign Office to help. The Foreign Office told the family that it would alert the British consulate in Istanbul, and that any further measures would have to be taken by the police. The family were unable to rely on the authorities, who were slow to deal with the case, and were forced to mount their own investigation with the help of Edgar's friends. They formed two investigative teams; they possessed hardly any formal experience in investigation work, and were armed with only a passionate determination to identify what had happened to Edgar.
The family and friends took time off work, and one team flew to Turkey while another was based in London to exert pressure on the authorities here. Within weeks, in an impressive and unprecedented feat, they had located Edgar's belongings and medication in the hotel room. Their presence, steadfast determination and passion appeared to galvanise the embassy officials into action. Although the officials allocated to the case did their best within their limited power, the family believe that the case could have been given a higher priority by the consul general.
§ Mr. Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Hall Green)My point is that time is of the essence. As I understand it, the suspected murderer of Edgar Fernandes is being held in custody by the authorities in Malta. Does my hon. Friend agree that, if the British authorities and police act now, there is every prospect of being able to put sufficient pressure on the Turkish authorities to deal appropriately with the suspect? Otherwise, he is likely to slip through the net, like so many others who have been associated with the disappearance of British citizens in Turkey over the past 10 years.
§ Mr. VazI am most grateful to my hon. Friend for raising that matter; he is absolutely right to say that time is of the essence. Later in my speech, I shall suggest what the Government should do.
The family researched the hotel register and interviewed the guests, management and staff of the hotel. The result of that and other investigative work was that they managed to trace a suspect to Malta through Edgar's debit card expenditure. Armed with that evidence and the suspect's name, address and passport number, they went to Kentish Town police station expecting a positive response. Unfortunately, the officer looked at the evidence, consulted the file and reiterated the standard response that Edgar had run away from his family. His "gut feeling" was that Edgar had most probably now gone to Malta. How wrong he was.
The family began to believe that the officers's attitude had disturbing echoes of the case of Stephen Lawrence. By now, they were in despair. The obstructive attitude of some agencies, coupled with the bureaucratic attitude of others, led the family to request my help. They were extremely distraught and feared the worst. I was shocked and horrified by what had transpired, and I readily agreed to support the family. Meanwhile, the family and friends vigorously pursued the search in Turkey. The British consulate in Istanbul informed the family that no news was good news and that, had a British citizen been killed, it would be notified within two days.
The traumatic search continued. Edgar's brother Matthias stayed in Turkey and was joined by his cousin and a friend, believing that they could not rely on the 547 authorities to do the work. The family in the United Kingdom researched all the hospitals and mental institutions in Istanbul, produced leaflets carrying photographs of Edgar, translated them into Turkish and faxed them to all those institutions with a detailed description of Edgar in a desperate attempt to trace him. Family members in Turkey continued their meetings with Turkish Interpol, British embassy officials and hotel staff. They also visited the hospitals, police stations and mental institutions, but with no success. Having no time to search the prisons on their own, they decided to consult lawyers to do the same; unfortunately, the cost proved prohibitive.
On 8 May, I arranged a meeting for the family with my noble Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, Baroness Symons of Vernham Dean. I thank my noble Friend for agreeing to see us. The family appealed to her to put pressure on Turkey to find Edgar and to implore the Turkish authorities to conduct a thorough investigation into the whole case. They also asked her to designate an official to follow the case through and galvanise all the authorities into action.
At the very time that we were meeting the Minister, the family in Turkey were looking at pictures of dead bodies in the morgue. Depressingly, one of the photographs was of Edgar's body. I was informed when I was on a train bound for my constituency, and I immediately returned to see the family in London.
The continuing campaign has prevented the family from grieving and mourning their brother and son. The unimaginable shock that must have befallen them can be little understood by those who have not gone through exactly the same experience. The family's hope that Edgar might still be alive lay in tatters, but there was more to endure. Imagine their horror when they discovered that their loved one had indeed been dead for a month and had lain carelessly in an Istanbul morgue decomposing—the same morgue that they had visited earlier, but to which they had been denied access.
Why was Edgar's body not found within the two-day limit that the embassy said was the norm? How did things go so tragically wrong? Why did not the Turkish authorities act immediately on the evidence produced? If Edgar's family had thought that matters could not get worse, they were to be bitterly disappointed.
The family decided to put aside their anguish and mourning, and to set up a campaign to demand justice for Edgar, in the hope that it might act as a catalyst and a precedent for other families in future.
A suspect was swiftly arrested in Malta. I pay tribute to the Maltese authorities for their co-operation and for acting on the evidence presented to them by the family. However, the fight for justice is not yet complete. Extradition papers from Turkey have still not arrived in Malta, and the suspect remains in custody there. Although the Foreign Office has sent a diplomatic message to Malta to keep the suspect in custody until the extradition order arrives, the Maltese have confirmed to the family that, as Malta is a democratic country, it has conduct of its own affairs within the boundaries of the law.
The campaign continues. A couple of weeks ago, the family decided to organise a vigil outside the Foreign Office, which was attended by nearly 100 people.
548 Trying to ensure that information flows freely between three countries has been a bureaucratic nightmare. British Interpol has said that it is "just a post office". The police have claimed that the primary responsibility is with the Foreign Office, and the Foreign Office has stated that it is the responsibility of Interpol to liaise with the authorities in Turkey. How can ordinary British families caught in this maze believe that they will ever get justice?
British Interpol has proved to be an insurmountable challenge—it is reluctant to help, and refuses to set aside bureaucratic rules even in the most tragic circumstances. On 8 May, the day that we went to see the Foreign Office Minister, someone in my office spoke to an official at Interpol to request a meeting. The subsequent conversation lasted an hour, as the official repeatedly went to his supervisor to seek guidance.
Later that day, at 3 pm, my staff spoke to Detective Superintendent Whiting, the head of Interpol London, and were told that a meeting between the family and Interpol was impossible and against the rules. It was clear that Detective Superintendent Whiting was unaware that, since the conversations earlier in the day, Edgar's body had been discovered. Those conversations illuminated the fact that we were dealing with an inflexible, inefficient organisation which was out of touch with ordinary people.
In the end, representatives of Interpol came to my office to meet me. I asked them to meet the family. There followed a version of musical rooms in Norman Shaw North, as they first refused, and eventually agreed, to meet members of the family.
There do not seem to be systems and procedures in place to trace British citizens who disappear abroad. What will the Minister do to ensure that families do not have to resort to flying out to those countries to get justice? If the Foreign Office is doing its job, why can it not inform us how many of the 174 people reportedly missing in Turkey have now been found?
I also arranged for the family to meet the Minister of State, Home Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael). I have asked him to send a team of detectives to Turkey to review the investigation, as has happened in several cases involving British citizens murdered abroad. I thank him for agreeing to meet us. The family is hoping for a positive response in the near future.
During its investigation, the Edgar Fernandes campaign group uncovered evidence of another attack on an innocent British Asian person in Turkey in the same month. Dr Qureishi was brutally attacked and left for dead. Unfortunately, his family also had to resort to flying to Turkey in order to discover what had happened to him. He was finally found in a hospital. What steps will the Minister take to protect and safeguard Britons abroad?
During their investigation in Turkey, the family uncovered information that gangs appeared to be targeting British Asians for their passports, which, it was stated, were easy to forge. They were also informed that the passports could fetch up to £6,000 each. The Foreign Office has confirmed that the passport that belonged to Edgar Fernandes entered into Bulgaria and Greece. British passports with ethnic names can fetch the maximum price in Turkey and Edgar Fernandes has paid the ultimate price for that. If he had been given that information, the family are convinced that he would never have gone to Turkey on holiday. What steps will the Minister take to inform other Britons of the dangers posed to them?
549 The other principal concern in this tragic case is the lack of investigation since the family members have returned to the United Kingdom. Time erodes memories and evidence. The family were shocked to discover that no forensic evidence was collected, but cost implications preclude the family from returning to Turkey to press for more action. Will my hon. Friend continue the investigation and conclude what the family have already achieved? The British police have informed the family that they are not aware of any new information or evidence having been unearthed since their return from Turkey. I can deduce from this only that not all the leads given to the Turkish authorities have been followed through.
Furthermore, the Minister has assured us that the Foreign Office is actively following up the case. I appreciate the enormous burdens on the Foreign Office, but I have several specific requests, of which I have given my hon. Friend notice. Will he explain why the family have not been given a report on the progress of the investigation for more than a month? The lack of monitoring may seriously jeopardise the case. Will the Minister write to the Turkish authorities expressing his concerns and impressing on them the importance of following all leads and conducting a thorough investigation in order to bring the suspect to justice?
My constituents have the highest respect for the Turkish people, and have found most of them to be very helpful. They simply seek justice for Edgar. Will the Minister write to the British embassy in Istanbul to ask the consul general to give the case the highest priority? Will he also ask for the family to be provided with fortnightly reports on the investigation, and will he agree to meet the family in order to discuss the matter further?
I conclude by paying tribute again to the family and friends of Edgar Fernandes for their dedicated investigative effort and to my hon. Friends, many of whom have written letters of support. The family need the full support and backing of the Foreign Office, as well as of Interpol and the Home Office, in order to pursue the fight for justice. I call on the Minister to embrace the concerns that I have raised and to use them to fashion a constructive approach. Edgar, his family and the thousands of British holidaymakers who travel to Turkey deserve nothing less. Edgar Fernandes must be allowed to rest in peace.
§ The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr. Doug Henderson)I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East (Mr. Vaz) for bringing this matter to the attention of the House. I respect his strong commitment to his constituents' problems. Before I respond to the points that he has raised, I should like to express my condolences to the family of Mr. Fernandes.
The Government are fully committed to the protection of all British nationals travelling abroad. I am glad to be able to respond to the matter that my hon. Friend has raised by letting him know how the Government, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and our consular staff in Istanbul, Ankara and Valletta have acted. I begin by outlining the Foreign Office's knowledge of, and role in, the case. Then I hope to be able to take up the specific points that my hon. Friend identified as problematic.
550 Mr. Fernandes's family first contacted the Foreign Office consular division on 21 April 1998 to report Mr. Fernandes missing. Checks made through our consulate general in Istanbul showed that airport passport police had a record of his entry to Turkey on 8 April but no sign of departure. The family were advised by the Foreign Office to file a missing person's report with their local police station, which they did at Kentish Town police station on 22 April. Kentish Town police passed a message to Interpol UK the same day, which duly sent it to the Interpol bureau in Turkey. As the case progressed, the message was also passed to the bureaux in Egypt and Malta.
On 23 April, two members of the Fernandes family flew to Istanbul in the hope of tracing Mr. Fernandes. They contacted our consulate general staff who, on 27 April, asked the head prosecutor in Istanbul to investigate the disappearance as a matter of urgency. Members of our consular staff accompanied the family to hospitals in Istanbul and to a meeting with the deputy chief of police and the head of Interpol in Istanbul on 5 May.
It was not until 5 May that the Turkish authorities told our consulate general that they had a record of Mr. Fernandes's passport leaving Turkey at the Bulgarian border on 20 April. Further checks by our embassy in Sofia on 6 May showed that a person using that passport had entered Bulgaria by train from Turkey on 20 April and had left by foot at Kulhata on the Greek border on 21 April. Unfortunately, the Greek authorities do not keep records of European Union passport holders entering or leaving Greece. Mr. Fernandes's passport details have now been entered on a passport warning list, which means that anyone found using his passport, or trying to use it to apply for a visa, would be stopped.
On 8 May, the Turkish police showed a photograph of a body found on 10 April by the Bosphorus sea in Istanbul to a relative of Mr. Fernandes, who provisionally identified it. On 12 May, the relative saw the body and confirmed that it was the body of Edgar Fernandes.
I understand that, while he was staying in Istanbul, Mr. Fernandes shared a room at a guest-house with an Egyptian, Mr. Mohamed Abdal Monem Abbas Aly. Interpol and the family established that Mr. Aly left the guest house on 14 April and entered Malta on 16 April. Mr. Aly came further under suspicion with the discovery that Mr. Fernandes's credit card was used in Istanbul on 15 and 16 April and then in Malta on 22 April.
Our embassy in Cairo asked the Egyptian authorities for a photograph of Mr. Aly to assist in police investigations. Interpol UK was informed of Mr. Aly's arrest in Malta on 11 May, where he has been charged with fraud and immigration offences. Mr. Aly subsequently admitted to being responsible for Mr. Fernandes's death. That information was passed to the Fernandes family through Kentish Town police.
In relation to the specific point raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East, let me tell him that, in the past few days, the Turkish authorities have made a formal request to the Maltese authorities for Mr. Aly's extradition to Turkey to stand trial for Mr. Fernandes's murder. The Turkish authorities informed Interpol UK of that request.
Our missions in Ankara and Valletta have pressed the Turkish and Maltese authorities to deal with the extradition request quickly and to bring matters to a 551 speedy conclusion. In particular, our mission in Valletta has sought the assurance of the Maltese Government that Mr. Mohamed Abdal Monem Abbas Aly would not be deported until the extradition request from Turkey had been received and duly considered by the competent Maltese authority. We continue to press both the Turkish and the Maltese authorities to deal with the case expeditiously.
A number of questions were asked; I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Leicester, East for giving me notice of them. First, it was suggested that the case could have been given a higher priority by the consul general. I want to make it clear that it is always a matter of judgment how best to deal with those matters, but I can assure the House that the consul general has been active in seeking justice for the Fernandes family. As I said, the consul general has been active over a period of many weeks in contacting the Turkish authorities, often daily, in seeking to persuade them to process extradition proceedings in Malta—something that they have now done—and in assisting the Fernandes family on their visits to Turkey.
Secondly, my hon. Friend suggested that the British police could have done more to help the Fernandes family. However, as the crime was committed in Turkey, it is primarily a matter for the Turkish police. As I explained to the House, the family was advised by the Foreign Office to file a missing persons report at the local police station, which it did on 22 April.
On the same day, the Kentish Town police informed Interpol UK of the situation and subsequently informed the Interpol bureau in Turkey. In addition, before there was an identification of Mr. Fernandes, the Metropolitan police offered to try to obtain fingerprints from his London home if that would assist the identification.
Thirdly, my hon. Friend suggested that the British Government had not done enough to help to trace British citizens who disappear abroad. I can assure the House that, regardless of the background to any case, the Foreign Office takes extremely seriously any report of a missing British citizen. Attempts to identify the location of missing persons are given priority, and practical steps are taken, as was the case when Mr. Fernandes was reported missing.
A fourth point is that a number of British nationals who have been reported missing in Turkey over the past 10 years have not been accounted for. May I explain to the House that, although every case is individually followed up, it is not always possible to obtain information on the whereabouts of missing persons.
As every consular official in every post in the world will confirm, there are often reports of missing persons who are not missing persons. In many cases where 552 missing persons turn up somewhere else, to the knowledge of the police or of relatives or friends, that information is not always passed on to the Foreign Office. Sometimes, therefore, our consular officials do not know whether a particular missing person has been located. In other cases, the information is available and is collated by our Department.
A further point raised by my hon. Friend was the suggestion that inadequate precautions have been taken by the Government to protect Britons who travel abroad. Of course, it is not possible to warn our citizens of every danger, especially where that danger cannot be specifically foreseen. Every caution must be taken not to be alarmist.
Where there are identifiable hazards, our consular services take their responsibilities extremely seriously and provide travellers with details of potential hazards and how they can minimise the risks. In the case of Turkey, our consul advises travellers that there is a relatively high risk of robbery there, so that they are aware of it when travelling to that country.
Another suggestion, which I find alarming, was that British nationals of different ethnic backgrounds are not given the same priority. May I make it emphatically clear to the House that it is a policy of the Government that all British citizens are treated with the same priority. If hon. Members have any evidence that that is not the case, I should be grateful if they would provide me with that evidence. I can assure them of an immediate investigation and appropriate action.
Ministers have met the Fernandes family. My noble Friend the Under-Secretary met representatives of the family on 8 and 27 May. She wrote to the family a few weeks ago, on 29 June. The Minister of State, Home Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff, South and Penarth (Mr. Michael) has also met the Fernandes family, as my hon. Friend mentioned. I am prepared to meet representatives of the family, if that would be helpful, but it may be more appropriate for my noble Friend the Under-Secretary to do so.
I reassure the House that the investigation of the circumstances surrounding any missing British citizen abroad is given top priority by the Government. All action that we believe to be effective will be taken and pursued, in this case and in any other case. We would always want to keep those involved in any case advised of developments. All British citizens will be treated with the same degree of priority. I repeat my condolences to the family of Mr. Fernandes and reiterate that the Government will take every step to ensure that justice is done in relation to this terrible tragedy.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Adjourned accordingly at twenty-one minutes to One o' clock.